Coldplay have been voted the ‘Best Rock Band’ of 2011 in Digital Spy‘s end of year poll. The continued, saying that Coldplay beat runners-up Foo Fighters by a considerable margin on the tally, in which over 100,000 votes were cast. Leicester rockers Kasabian took third place. Elsewhere on the poll, Bruno Mars won ‘Best Male Artist’, ahead of Ed Sheeran and Will Young, who took spots two and three respectively.

The Wanted were named ‘Best Pop Group’ of the year, beating One Direction at two and The Saturdays at three. X Factor winners Little Mix took fifth position, below JLS and above Take That. Coldplay released their fifth studio album Mylo Xyloto in October this year. It topped the charts in over 11 countries and has already been certified platinum in the UK.

Digital Spy also commented that Chris Martin recently claimed that he felt the group was hated by the world, adding: “Some people misconstrue our band just to be a commercial venture. They question the soulfulness of Coldplay because we’ve done okay.”

Coldplay may be coming to Moncton in July, that is according to Canadian newspaper the Chronicle Herald this week. They said online that ‘Atlantic Canada Rocks’ reported on Friday that Coldplay is slated be at Magnetic Hill on 21st July, 2012 as part of a two-day music festival. “The source indicates that a deal is ‘nearly final,” the website says. Not only that, Atlantic Canada Rocks reported that Coldplay will be announcing more North American dates in January or February, according to its sources.

Apple has kicked off its annual 12 Days of iTunes giveaway on Monday 26th December with a free Coldplay album for UK iTunes users. The album, featuring three tracks and three videos, is available for nothing from iTunes. The set was from the iTunes festival and Coldplay entertaining the crowd at the London-based event. It’s certainly more useful than a Partridge in a Pear Tree.

As the name suggests, this is the first of 12 offers in the coming days, with some exciting content up for grabs. The Coldplay 12 Days of Christmas content is available now from iTunes, and will no doubt be a welcome boon for people cradling their new iPads and iPhones and sending their thanks to a very generous Santa. You’ll have to be quick though – we’re already 9 hours into the offer and it will be gone at midnight when Day 2’s offer will replace it. We’re betting it won’t be Two Turtle Doves…

Kit yourself up for the forthcoming MX tour and get spotted with Coldplaying’s new range of merchandise! [click on the items for the full shop]

The new range of Coldplaying merchanise (unofficial of course to the official shop) has hit our stores, with our biggest range of goods so far. Prices are as low as they can be for a Cafepress shop so more people will be able to afford them. We don’t take any profits for the sale of the merchandise as a result. Take a browse in one of the online stores nearest to you: UK | US | Canada | Australia | European (shipping is worldwide, but you can choose what currency to pay in) – simply alter the country dropdown menu at the top of the shop page. [thanks to TracieMorgan and zzz]